Robert Sabuda
is a #1 New York Times best-selling children’s book creator, leading children’s pop-up book artist, and paper engineer. He began his career after graduating Summa Cum Laude from the Pratt Institute in New York City. His interest in children's book illustration began with an internship at Dial Books for Young Readers while attending the Pratt Institute. Initially working as a package designer, he illustrated his first children's book series, of "Bulky Board Books." He enjoyed wide recognition after he started designing pop-up books for children.
Sabuda’s recent books, such as those depicting the stories of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan have received wide popular and critical acclaim. He is a two-time recipient of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award and has over five million books in print. He is the co-creator of the Encyclopedia Prehistorica pop-up trilogy, which has been translated into over 25 languages worldwide.
Sabuda appears regularly on the television programs The Today Show, Good Morning America and Martha Stewart where he shares his enthusiasm for creativity, children’s book art and literature. He has also been an associate professor at Pratt, where he began a program in Paper Engineering that continues to encourage the next generation of paper artists.
Sabuda lives and works in New York.
Jeff Abshear
, founding member and director of the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, was a Fulbright Research Scholar in Venice, Italy, where he worked at the Accademia di Belle Arti and studied the history of Italian printing, bookbinding, and papermaking. He teaches book arts each summer to children in Sardinia, Italy. While working on his masters degree in Fine Arts at Western Michigan University’s School of Art, Abshear helped establish a letterpress studio. Now an adjunct faculty member at WMU, he has also taught at Interlochen Center for the Arts.
The KBAC was founded in 2005 by artists and writers with a passion for book arts. Their vision resulted in a creative public space where artists and book enthusiasts of all kinds gather to collaborate and celebrate books and the many arts that inform them: paper making, printmaking, letterpress, creative writing, and bookbinding. They offer events and exhibits, classes for all ages and abilities, presentations, guest and resident artists, a book arts store, library, and regular celebrations of the book.
Maria Pérez-Stable and Beth Amidon
María Pérez-Stable has evaluated literature for children in grades K-9 since the late 1980s, resulting in two books, numerous journal articles, and workshops for teachers and librarians.
A College of Arts and Sciences merit award recipient for excellence in teaching, Elizabeth Amidon taught multicultural children’s literature for 20 years. An expert in the field, her most recent research interests include international children's literature. Their visual presentation will review the best books for youth in the past year.
Pérez-Stable is professor, University Libraries, and Amidon is master faculty specialist emeritus, English Department, Western Michigan University.